Breakthrough on loss and damage fund at COP27

The COP27 climate conference in Egypt in November ended with an historic agreement to set up a new loss and damage fund to compensate lower income countries for climate impacts. This was a big win for the global south that has been 30 years in the making and, while the talks didn’t produce significant steps forward on curbing fossil fuels, does show that when the climate justice movement is united, we can win. A transitional committee, made up of 10 representatives of rich countries and 14 representatives of countries in the global south, now has until the end of March to begin the process of deciding how the fund will operate.

There are sure to be many tough political battles ahead, on which countries should pay in and receive money from the fund, and how much finance is needed, before the funding arrangements are confirmed – this is planned to be at COP28 in Dubai. Civil society will need to monitor this process carefully to ensure that rich countries follow through on the agreement made in Sharm el Sheikh last year.

Meanwhile, plans are already in progress to ensure the UK makes a significant commitment to the loss and damage fund and that the government funds this by taxing big polluters in the fossil fuel industry.

Global Justice Now research published during COP27 argued that the Big 5 oil companies, which reported over $170 billion of profit in 2022 alone, could owe as much as $8 trillion to the global south because of the damage caused by their historic carbon emissions. We want the government to tax these climate criminals and to use some of the funds raised to provide climate compensation to the global south. Take action at: globaljustice.org.uk/ loss-and-damage